Category: Deuteronomy - Wittenberg Door Campus Ministry

Deuteronomy 10:12-21 - Lectionary for Trinity 18

10/5/2020

10/5/20
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the historic one-year lectionary.

In Deuteronomy 10:15 we see that God’s love for His people is due entirely to His choice. He decided to love the people of Israel, including all the generations up through the time of Moses. As Christians we can also say that God chose to love His people, all who believe on Jesus, God the Son, who has redeemed the world to the Father.

What response does God call us to? First, we are to “circumcise the foreskin of our heart.” The Scripture describes a cutting away of what is held by us and would interfere with God’s mercy. It may well be (normally is) held in secret. Yet whatever we would try to keep from God’s work of forgiveness and reconciliation, that we are to yield to God.

We show this love for God by exhibiting a selfless love for others. In verse 19 we are to love the sojourners, those who are visiting or staying for a while where we are. We are to have this attitude because God made His people sojourn in Egypt for a while. The Lord provides for those who are away from home. And he does it through His people. So in verse 18 when God provides food, clothing, and shelter for the sojourners, we are likely instruments for His use.

In effect, what we do is to love our neighbor as ourselves. And we identify the neighbors by looking around us and seeing who is there. We dedicate ourselves to God’s name, but in doing so, since God has loved those who travel among us, we love them also.

Those whom God has chosen to love? We love them too. It’s as easy as that.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

Deuteronomy 18:15-19 - Lectionary for Advent 4

12/16/2019

12/16/19
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the historic one-year lectionary.

Most people in our world seem to have one of two responses to Christianity, both described in Deuteronomy 18:15-19. Some of them, fearful of what might happen if they are confronted by God, are like those of verse 16. “Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord!” The presence of the creator of all is a terrible thing. He is described as a consuming fire, possessing glory which will kill those who gaze upon it. Many who are afraid of God’s confrontation are intimidated by all His commands as well. They flee from a life regulated in ways which go against their own inclinations. They find God’s identification of sin repugnant. In this headlong flight from the true and living God, they prefer “dead” gods, those made in the human image, including physical idols and idols of their own imagination.

Others like the idea of God visiting the world, but they misunderstand the glory and majesty of God. They say they want an unmediated encounter with God. They pursue spiritual experiences, emotional highs, and seek to be ushered into the spiritual presence of God. Some turn to mediums and spiritists, ending up in the presence of evil spirits. Some turn to experiential forms of Christianity and try to be whipped into an emotional frenzy. They don’t consider the fact that an unmediated encounter wtih God is exactly what brings death and destruction throughout the Scripture, because only that which is holy and pure can stand before God.

My hope and prayer is that all these people, in both categories, will be frustrated and their desires will be unfulfilled. Both groups are going down a path that leads to eternal destruction.

What is the alternative? As God raised up Moses, a prophet who would speak for him in the presence of the people. in these last days, just as He promised, God the Son, Jesus, has come. True God, yes, but clothed in humanity, he mediates the presence of God for all who look to him. Being without sin himself, he alone is able to stand in the presence of the holy Lord. Being truly human, he alone is able to represent all humanity before God’s throne. He is the one we are to hear and believe.

Verse 19 leaves us with a sobering thought. We can stand before God in the mediating presence of Jesus, or we can stand before God without Jesus’ protective care. God requires this perfect obedience, perfect holiness, perfect submission, from someone. Are we prepared to stand before God in our own selves? Not at all. We need a mediator, and in Jesus we have exactly the mediator we need. Lord, give us grace to hear and believe him.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

Deuteronomy 30:15-20 - Lectionary for Pentecost 13C

9/2/2019

9/2/19
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.

Words of life (and death). That’s what God gives His people in Deuteronomy 30:15-20. In fact, that’s the essence of the Bible’s overall message. God gives words of life. His primary message to us is that of life and hope.

God gives His words of life mostly in the form of promises. Yet here, the promise is a conditional one. It references both obeying God’s commands and loving God, which we suppose to be some sort of activity. The Bible does call Christians to a life characterized by obedience to God. He makes demands. Yet when we look at the larger content of Scripture, the normal way we keep the commands of God is by believing God’s promises, trying to live for Him, and confessing our failure to God, asking His forgiveness. This is summed up in Abraham, who believed God. That was considered righteousness.

What’s the point of our obedience? It reflects God’s character. It helps us and our neighbors in life together. It’s normally meaningful and fulfilling. Good works are good!

We also see that God has laid out a way of death, which is found when we follow our hearts, which regularly lead us to some sort of false gods. These may be the gods of our making or of some world religion. They are not the one true God. What happens then? Simply by our failure to pursue life before the God of the Bible, by serving and obeying anyone else, we are headed for trouble. Our world is much more likely to fall apart. God promises it will result in final destruction.

Two ways - life and death. Will we hope in God, receiving life, or will we hope in ourselves, receiving death? The decision shouldn’t be very difficult.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

Deuteronomy 32:36-39 - Lectionary for Sunday of the Passion, Series C

4/8/2019

4/8/19
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.

How great is the compassion of God! Our Old Testament reading from Deuteronomy 32:36-39 points out God’s compassion when he vindicates his people (v. 36). When doese this happen? It is when the people’s power is gone. God’s care for his people shows when his people have hit bottom, when they are at the end of themselves, when they have no earthly hope.

Why would the loving God leave his people to get into such a desperate condition? We see our tendency in verses 37-38. As fallen humans, one of our failings is to take matters into our own hands and try to work out a way of salvation apart from God. Here the temptation was to make other gods and worship them. What is God’s response? He lets his people try their own way, only to see it fail. Those other gods we designed, the ones we trusted, to whom we gave sacrifices and offerings, what happened to them? They were our creations. They were never trustworthy. They couldn’t help us at all, so we fell into failure.

It is when we realize our resources are no good that we turn to the true and living God, the one who can rescue and bring life. It is then that we find the Lord was always there, caring for us, even when we went off on our own way.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

Deuteronomy 26:1-11 - Lectionary for Lent 1C

3/4/2019

3/4/19
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.

One of the most frequent complaints I have about our current culture is that it is disconnected from heritage and history. Even though postmodernism is a reaction, in part, to the modernists’ walk away from history, we seem determined to pick and choose from history, reinterpreting it according to our own desires. Finding the context of a piece of history is crucial to our identity and our humanity. That’s something that was reinforced to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 26:1-11. Here the people of Israel are told what they should do to bring offerings once they are in the land of promise.

Not only are the Israelites to bring an offering from the first of their increase, but they are to bring it very specifically to the place God assigns. That place isn’t any more holy than any other place, but it’s the place given to them. In the Bible, worship is always to happen according to patterns and principles revealed by God, not according to our imagination. Granted, there are many features of worship which are not spelled out for us. But the offerings were to be brought to the place where God said to bring them. It is the place and way God has given for that kind of worship. We trust that we will find God where he has said he is to be found.

What do the worshipers do when they arrive? They describe their history. They were wanderers, whose course and provisions came from God. They have been cared for and they are bringing an offering as a sign of what God has provided for them. It is only by God’s mercy that they can do so. The offering is presented with thanksgiving.

Are we aware of the historical importance of our wanderings? Of the Lord’s direction of our paths? Of the provision God has showered down on us by His grace? Are we willing to confess these truths before God and before our fellow worshipers? We don’t have the option of reinterpretation. We, just like the Israelites of old, have been brought to the place where we dwell by God’s grace. We find here that He is going to provide our needs. We take some of that provision and return thanks to the Lord, because we recognize all we have comes from him. This is our heritage. This is our history. This is the kind of Lord we have, one who cares for his people.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

Deuteronomy 34:1-12 - Lectionary for Transfiguration C

2/25/2019

2/25/19
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.

Moses, called a prophet in Deuteronomy 34:1-12, saw God face to face, led the people of Israel toward receiving their promise, and, finally, died in the wilderness without personally receiving the promise. Yet the people of Israel didn’t consider him a failure. Not by any means. Personally receiving the promise of God in this life is a wonderful thing. It’s what we all hope for, it’s the stuff of dreams. Yet generation after generation of God’s people died without receiving all of God’s promise.

Here, the promise is that which had been given to Abraham some 500 years earlier. God would bless Abraham, give him offspring, a land of promise, and make him a mighty nation through whom the whole world would be blessed. For generation after generation, the people who believed the promise to Abraham died in faith, not receiving the promise. They had an offspring. They were, at least in some ways, a blessing to other nations, as they did a lot of the dirty work of the Egyptians. But they didn’t have the land and they had trouble seeing some of God’s blessings.

There’s a very important principle we learn in Scripture, illustrated in the life, work, and death of Moses. God’s promises are real promises. The fact that we die before inheriting them all the way does not invalidate them. God’s promise is true and good. It will come to pass. He won’t let a little thing like the death of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, or the many others leading up to Moses stand in the way. He won’t let the death of his anointed King David stand in the way of his promise to make of David a great and eternal kingdom. He won’t let anything stand in the way of his preservation of a remnant people who could trust his promises. The promises are good and true.

How has God promised to bless his people? They will have a land, an inheritance, and an eternal king on the throne of David. They will be rescued from all evil. This happens in Jesus, the Messiah. Granted, he dies, but he rises again from the dead. In his death and resurrection he shows that not only heaven and earth, but life and death belong to him. He himself is the promise of God. So what of Moses? Moses died in faith, trusting that he was also a partaker of God’s promise. He was perfectly all right, even after death, just as God’s promise is perfectly valid, even when it is beheld by those of us who are limited in our earthly life. The Lord makes an eternal promise which is just as real, just as valid, just as certain as it was when he first made it. Thanks be to God, the God of promise.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

Deuteronomy 6:1-9 - Lectionary for Pentecost 24B

10/30/2018

10/30/18
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.

Our Psalm this week told us of the blessed state of those who trust the Lord. How do we learn this trust? Our Old Testament reading, Deuteronomy 6:1-9, sheds some light on it. Here God commands his people to hear His Word and follow it. In exchange, God promises a land which is full of His provision.

But how is this to be done? It’s centered on God’s identity. He is the one God, the Lord, the particular God of Israel, who is the Lord specifically of each person in Israel. This God, and nobody else, is to be their God. When we create for ourselves substitute gods we will find they fail. Those substitutes like our self-preservation, our opinion, popular wisdom, or an adoption of the best parts of various religions will not be reliable. The very particular God of Israel calls his people to himself. He has also called all nations, so that particular call is intended for every person on the planet.

What does it look like to live as the people of God? We are, according to verse five, to love God with everything we have. We keep his words in our heart (v. 6). We tell our children and everyone else about God’s Word (v. 7). We make reminders of God and His character so we will not forget (vv. 8-9). Granted, this counsel is lacking in specific details, but it has enough to direct us for now.

What is God’s promise to his people? He will keep them, prosper them, and make them to multiply in the land He gives them. Trusting God is good for his people. When we love God and spread his Word around, we find that we are his people and he is our God.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9 - Lectionary for Pentecost 15B

8/28/2018

8/28/18
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.

In Deuteronomy the people of Israel are given a recap and summary of who God is and what He desires, as shown in all of their earlier history. The big picture is summarized in chapter 4 verse 1. Pay attention to God’s word so as to live and receive the promise God has made. This is a promise of a land, a hope, and a future. It is clear that this promise is not received by the Israelites because of their goodness or obedience, but only because they trust God’s Word.

When the people of Israel accept God’s Word He says they will appear wise to all their neighbors. They can then tell about God’s goodness. He is the God who is near to His people. He gives good commands which work.

Many in our world today consider God and His Word to be optional or even irrelevant. At the same time, they want to find integrity, a workable ethic, ways that people from different backgrounds can be at peace, and any number of other important cultural values. When God’s people point out that all these positive cultural desires are present in the Bible, and when we strive to live them out, we too can be like the Israelites. Then we can show our world God’s goodness and mercy.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

Deuteronomy 5:12-15 - Lectionary for Pentecost 2B

5/30/2018

5/30/18
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.

Our Old Testament reading for this week is God’s Sabbath command from Deuteronomy chapter 5. Here God not only directs his people to take a day of rest, but also to work hard on six other days (v. 13). We often hear reasons for taking a day of rest. Frequently they seem self-centered. We take a day of rest because we need it. However, let’s notice the reasons given in Deuteronomy chapter 5.

First, in verse 14, it is so those who work for us can rest. It’s good for other people. Our rhythms of work and rest want to care for those around us. Second, it is because God gives rest to his people. The example of this is the people of Israel, who were rescued from bondage in Egypt. They received the rest they needed.

From a New Testament perspective, we who believe on Jesus for salvation have entered into rest from our sins. This is the fulfillment of the Exodus. Like God rescued his people from bondage in Egypt, he rescues his people from captivity to sin. A day of rest, then, is a chance to remember our freedom from sin’s bondage and to proclaim that same liberty to others. This is true rest.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

Deuteronomy 18:15-20 - Lectionary for Epiphany 4B

1/23/2018

1/23/18
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.

The people of Israel had a rocky relationship with Moses. Although he led them out of captivity in Egypt, served as God’s messenger to bring them God’s Law, and helped them see the ways God would have them approach him in worship, they frequently complained about him. He frightened them, but God frightened them even more.

When God had offered to reveal His Law to the people of Israel, they were afraid and wanted Moses to serve as their representative. Maybe they expected he would die on the mountain and they could go about their business however it seemed right to them. It’s hard to tell. But we know from Deuteronomy 18:16 that they were afraid to meet God themselves.

Like every other leader, Moses would wear out and eventually die. What would the people do then? How would they hear from God? In Deuteronomy 18:17-19 we are told that God’s intention was to raise up another prophet. He would speak the words of God honestly, all the time. And those who would refuse to listen to him would be held accountable. They would have to work out their salvation without the help of a mediator.

The New Testament portrays Jesus as this replacement for Moses. He is the final revelation of God (Hebrews chapter 1). He is the Word of God himself (John chapter 1). What, then, of those who refuse to hear him? They will have to work out their salvation without his help.

Jesus served not only as a teacher and a prophet. He is also presented as the Lamb of God who could take away the people’s sins once and for all. As the perfect man, he was able to die the death that all humans deserve. As the perfect God, he was not able to be held by death.

This may make us uncomfortable. God was walking around in skin. But look what he was doing, through Moses and through Jesus. He was giving his life to make a way of forgiveness for all who would take him at his word. Do we have the same problem with Moses that the Israelites did? What if we try looking to Jesus, hearing His word, and trusting that he is the true and final prophet?

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

A Necessary Review

1/9/2018

Tuesdays are for the Old Testament
1/9/18

Lessing, R. Reed & Andrew E. Steinmann. Prepare the Way of the Lord: An Introduction to the Old Testament. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2014. Chapter 7, “Deuteronomy” pp. 131-144.

The book of Deuteronomy takes its English name from the Greek for “second law.” Lessing points out that the content clarifies God’s words from Mount Sinai (Lessing 2014, 131). Lessing considers the claims throughout Deuteronomy assigning the words to Moses as a claim of Mosaic authorship, which he accepts. However, he concludes that there are some passages which indicate additional material inserted after the time of Moses (Lessing 2014, 132). Other critical views will assign composite authorship, often at a much later time. The book is, however, in the form of treaties used only for a brief time, around the time of Moses (Lessing 2014, 132). This encourages Lessing to hold to a Mosaic view of authorship.

Deuteronomy is by and large a series of sermons, in which Moses clarifies and restates the history of God’s dealings with his people (Lessing 2014, 133). The text is sometimes compared in structure to treaties used in Hittite territories at the time of Moses (Lessing 2014, 135). In any analysis, there are several lengthy discourses, all organized around the way God and his people dwell together.

Critical scholarship sees in Deuteronomy a radical shift from the theology in Genesis through Numbers (Lessing 2014, 136). The scholars see it as centralizing the authority recognized of God. They also see a corrective against a more mythic and allegedly earlier view in which God has location. The concept of Torah is very important in Deuteronomy (Lessing 2014, 137). Lessing considers “law” as an inadequate translation of the concept of “Torah.” The text not only states legal principles but it reveals God’s great and gracious will as an expression of his character. It is, above all, a preached message (Lessing 2014, 137). A powerful and related theme is that of idolatry. Pursuing worship of anything other than God is a false religion (Lessing 2014, 139). Punishment for false religions is very strict. In contrast to the other nations, Israel is the chosen people of God, who exercises sovereignty in his rule over his people (Lessing 2014, 139). These are the people who will inherit the land, another major theme (Lessing 2014, 140). This land, promised to Abraham, will become the home for God’s people.

Deuteronomy is referred to in the New Testament more than almost any other Old Testament book (Lessing 2014, 141). Israel, God’s chosen people, is reduced to one in Jesus, the chosen Son of God. Moses appears in Deuteronomy as the one who foreshadows the Christ (Lessing 2014, 142). The images of bodily care of people, hearts, hands, eyes, etc., are all embodied in Jesus.

The concept of sin and grace is very clear in Deuteronomy (Lessing 2014, 142). The people have a strong history of rebellion against God. They are a chosen people not because of their goodness but because of God’s great mercy.

Deuteronomy 7:6-9 - Lectionary for Pentecost 8A

7/25/2017

7/25/17
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.

Many Christians seem to relish a humility which denies assurance of their salvation. They will say they hope that Jesus has saved them. They suppose they will know in the last day. Sometimes, very sadly, people will accompany these statements with sentences such as, “I hope I’ve been a good person” or “I have always tried to live right.”

This view of Christian humility is dangerous. It rejects the care of God for his people, clearly laid out in Deuteronomy 7:6-9. Here we read that God has, of his own accord, and without human permission or merit, chosen to redeem his people from death. He has taken his people and established his love with them.

Why has God chosen his people? It is not because they are great or mighty. It is simply because he has loved them. And unlike the love we have, God’s love doesn’t pass away. He will never fall out of love with his people. This is because he never fell in love with them. He decided to love them. He has every intention of keeping his covenant of love. This is an everlasting covenant, to a thousand generations.

Realize that the idea of a thousand in the Bible indicates something which does not end. Ten, a very complete number which our fingers and toes would confirm, is cubed, a power of three, frequently signifying the Trinity. A thousand is a number which we would never bother to count. It is too many. And if we consider a generation to be about thirty years, when we realize the biblical account shows humans being in the picture now for about 6,000 years, we see that a thousand generations has barely begun. God’s love for his people extends farther and longer than we can imagine.

Let us, then, flee the false humility that denies God’s love for his people. Has God loved you? Yes. If you are trusting in Jesus, he has set his love on you, not because of your goodness or merit, but simply because he wanted to do so. This is the message of assurance which anyone who trusts Jesus can have. God has chosen you. He will never let you down. Thanks be to God.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

Deuteronomy 30:15-20 - Lectionary for Epiphany 6A

2/7/2017

2/7/17
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.

This week’s Old Testament passage is Deuteronomy 30:15-20. It lays out before the people of Israel a very simple choice. They can love the LORD, allowing their actions and attitudes to be in accord with His Word, or they can allow their heart to turn away. This is a choice which the passage describes as life and death, a choice of being blessed or cursed. God’s clear stated desire is that the people of Israel should “choose life” (v. 19, NKJV).

This Scripture is often misunderstood in modern American preaching and teaching. A brief corrective is appropriate.

First, some teach that this passage calls people to “decide for Jesus.” The text tells people in verse 16 what God commands the people. However, this passage does not urge anyone to make the kind of decision for Jesus which is often demanded in many church congregations. Put quite simply, this is addressed to the chosen people of God, Israel. All of the people of Israel are, by their birthright, already partakers of the covenant promises of God. They are not asked to opt in. There is nothing contradictory about reminding the people who are already God’s people of their identity and of the importance of remaining faithful to God’s covenants. That is exactly what is really happening here.

Second, some teach that the people in the passage who turn away (v. 17) were not believers in the first place. Yet it is impossible for someone who is not a member of a family to depart from the family. It is impossible for someone who is not a partaker of a covenant to depart from the covenant. Rather, this passage asserts that the people of Israel, God’s covenant people, have a tendency to depart from taking His Word seriously. Therefore they need to be reminded of their identity.

What is the passage teaching? It reminds us that we who are God’s people are obligated to cultivate our attitude of faith toward him. We need to take God’s Word seriously and hold to the great promises he has given. This is how God’s inheritance is delivered.

From the very beginning of the Christian period, Christians have taught that the covenant of God is delivered to all nations through Jesus, identified as God the Son. By trusting that he is the one who has fulfilled God’s law perfectly and on our behalf, we are partakers of all the promises of God. Salvation is a matter of God’s promise, not of our obedience. Our obedience is rightly seen as a response to God’s love for us. It is likewise a sign that we are loving the Lord (v. 16).

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.